NEA Awards Grant for 2018 African American Artists Exhibition

Project Onward has been awarded a $10,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). The grant supports our February 2018 exhibition entitled HONORING LEGENDARY AFRICAN AMERICAN ARTISTS: DISTINCT PORTRAITS BY disABLED ARTISTS. Read the letter, below, from Project Onward President, Marsha Woodhouse, which outlines the details.

Dear Friends,

I am pleased to announce that Project Onward has been awarded a $10,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). The grant supports our February 2018 exhibition entitled HONORING LEGENDARY AFRICAN AMERICAN ARTISTS: DISTINCT PORTRAITS BY disABLED ARTISTS. Everyone at Project Onward is thrilled to be recognized by the NEA which made our grant through its Art Works II Visual Arts Program.

The show features portraits of celebrated painters, sculptors and printmakers, rendered by Project Onward’s master artists. Subjects include, among others, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Carrie Mae Weems, Kerry James Marshall and Elizabeth Catlett. Final pairings of Project Onward artists and their subjects are expected to be completed in September.

PORTRAITS will be given its world premiere on February 2018 in conjunction with Black History Month. Opening festivities will include a February 3rd VIP preview reception followed by a public launch later the same month. On February 23, a panel of distinguished guest speakers will be convened to discuss the exhibition and the experience of the African American artist. In late February and throughout March, Teaching Artist sessions and community workshops by Project Onward artists, will be held at various south and west side locations in the Chicago.

We encourage all friends of Project Onward to attend PORTRAITS and its related activities in February and March. Once again, we thank the National Endowment for the Arts for its support of Project Onward’s extraordinary artists.